Catalogue description INDICTMENT BOOKS

The first volume (1660-1668/9) is the earliest record extant among the Quarter Sessions archives (Plate I). It probably represents a fresh start after a hiatus caused by the Civil War and Commonwealth, and not an entirely new series, since an earlier and roughly similar volume, 1595-1601, is at the British Museum (see Appendix II p. 17). It is mainly a verbatim enrolment of indictments, sessions by sessions, but includes also jury lists for the grand jury, for groups of Hundreds and for some petty juries, as well as headings (for most sessions until 1666, and for Easter, 1667) giving the names of justices present and of the clerk of the peace, and place where Quarter Sessions were held. The chief offences dealt with are theft, keeping of unlicensed or disorderly ale-houses, drunkenness, drinking or playing cards or dice on Sunday, non-attendance at church, non-payment of county rates, erection of cottages with less than 4 acres of land, exercising trades without having served apprenticeship, neglect to repair highways, neglect of duty by constables, in particular failure to collect hearth tax and failure to execute the order of Quarter Sessions (1664) to cut down and destroy tobacco crops. The prosecutor's name is given and often a very brief note is added as to the plea and result of the case.

The second volume (1770-1773) is a bare verbatim enrolment of indictments. The later volumes (1808 onwards) are registers of indictments in schedule form, stating whether found a 'true bill' or not; name of defendant or parish indicted; offence (usually one word, 'assault', 'misdemeanour', 'felony', etc.); prosecutor's name; brief note of result of trial and sentence.

Contemporary indexes of defendants, in each volume, 1660-1668/9 (part missing), 1808-1910, and index (incomplete) to types of offence, in first volume.